Systems and methods for identifying tampered bats

ABSTRACT

A system for determining information associated a bat includes a bat having a handle, a barrel extending from the handle, and a cap connected to the barrel opposite the handle. The cap is connected to a first portion of a chip, and a second portion of the chip is connected to a portion of the bat other than the cap. A user device communicates with the chip on a network to receive the information associated with the bat or to receive second information used to obtain the information associated with the bat. The information associated with the bat may be whether the cap has been removed, which may identify whether the bat has been modified.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/850,672 filed on May 21, 2019, the entire contents of such application being incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Baseball and softball are very competitive sports, and the players engaged in these sports are always looking for a competitive advantage. Initially, baseball was played with a solid wooden bat. As technology progressed, baseball bats were formed from alternative materials (e.g. aluminum, titanium, composites, etc.) instead of wood. Bat construction has progressed to the point at which most non-wooden bats are constructed of either a metal, typically aluminum or titanium, or a composite and include a hollow barrel. The hollow barrel includes the sweet spot has a cap on the end of the bat. These modern bats are so efficient at transferring energy to the ball that upper limits of efficiency, or “hotness”, are common in baseball and softball leagues that allow the use of non-wooden bats.

While a non-wooden bat may comply with these upper limits when it is sold, many bat owners will remove the cap and increase the “hotness” using a variety of techniques, such as “break-in” techniques, shaving the inside of the bat to reduce the thickness of the material used to form the barrel, end loading the bat, etc. When the technique is completed, the cap is reinstalled, and it is very difficult to determine whether the bat has been modified. Once one of these techniques is completed, the bat may no longer comply with the upper limits of “hotness”, making it illegal and unsafe to play. What is needed is a way to determine whether a cap has been removed from a non-wooden bat, which may help determine whether the bat has been modified.

SUMMARY

According to one implementation described herein, a system for determining information associated a bat includes a bat having a handle, a barrel extending from the handle, and a cap connected to the barrel opposite the handle. The cap is connected to a first portion of a chip, which includes a second portion connected to a portion of the bat other than the cap. The system further includes user device that communicates with the chip on a network to receive the information associated with the bat or to receive second information used to obtain the information associated with the bat. The portion of the bat other than the cap may be the inner wall of the barrel, and the first portion of the chip may be connected to a portion of the cap located in a hollow chamber of the barrel. The network may correspond to a near field communication network. The chip may be an NCF tag or a contactless smart card. The system may further include a server device that communicates with the user device on the network or a second network. The second network may be the internet. The server device may include a database, and the second information may include a unique identifier used to query the database to obtain the information associated with the bat. The information associated with the bat may either identify that the cap has been removed or that the cap has not been removed. The chip may be deformed when the cap is partially or completely removed from the bat, and the second information may be either a first signal when the chip has not been deformed or a second signal when the chip has been deformed. The user device may be a smart phone. The information associated with the bat may include the manufacturer of the bat, the date of manufacture, the model of the bat, the length of the bat, or the weight of the bat.

In another implementation described herein, a bat configured to provide information associated with the bat to a user includes a handle, a barrel extending from the handle, a cap connected to the barrel opposite the handle, and a chip. The chip includes a first portion connected to the cap and a second portion connected to a portion of the bat other than the cap. The chip is configured to communicate via a network to provide the information associated with the bat or to provide second information used to obtain the information associated with the bat. The chip may be an NFC Tag. The portion of the bat other than the cap may be the inner surface of the barrel. The information associated with the bat may include whether the cap has been removed. The second information may be configured to query a database to obtain the information associated with the bat. The second information may includes a signal and the information associated with the bat includes whether the cap has been removed. The network may be a near field communication network.

According to another implementation described herein a bat configured to identify whether a cap of the bat has been removed includes a handle and, a barrel extending from the handle and including a hollow chamber The cap is partially inserted into the hollow chamber of the barrel opposite the handle. The bat includes a chip having a first portion connected to the cap and a second portion connected to an inner surface of the barrel. The chip is deformed when the cap has been removed from the bat. The chip is configured to provide a signal on the network that identifies whether the cap has been removed. The signal may be a first signal, when the cap has not been removed, or a second signal, when the cap has been removed. The second signal may be the absence of a signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A through 1C illustrate a non-limiting example embodiment of a bat that may be used in connection with the systems and/or methods described herein.

FIG. 2 an example environment in which the systems and/or methods described herein may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1A through 2 are attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference. The following detailed description refers to the accompanying FIGS. 1A through 2. The same reference numbers in different figures may identify the same or similar elements.

The systems, methods, technologies and/or techniques (hereinafter, the “systems and methods”), described herein, may include a chip that may communicate with a user device (e.g. a scanner, a reader, a tablet, a smart phone, etc.) via a network to notify a user that the cap of a bat may have been removed and/or that a bat has been modified (a “bat modification”). Notifying a user of a bat modification may include the chip failing to communicate with a user device, may include the chip providing a signal indicating the a bat modification has been made, may include providing a signal to a server device, via a network, which server device may be accessed by one or more user devices to communication the bat modification, etc.

The chip may vary depending upon the particular application. In one embodiment, the chip may be a device that does not need to be independently powered to function, such as an NFC tag, that may communicate with a user device, such as a smart phone, to notify the user of a bat modification or of the fact no bat modification has been performed. In another embodiment, the chip may be another passive device or low power device, such as a radio frequency identification tag, or RFID tag, or a BLE (Bluetooth low energy device), an IC device (e.g. such as a MIFARE® IC device, etc.) and the user device may correspond to a reader of the device, such as an RFID reader or a user device that can communicate with the chip (e.g. via a low energy Bluetooth connection). In yet another embodiment, the chip may be a communication device that operates under its own power and that communicates with a user device, such as via a network (as further discussed herein), to provide information associated with a bat modification (i.e. when a bat modification occurred, no bat modification has occurred, a bat modification just occurred, etc.). Additionally, or alternatively, the chip may be communication device that communicates with a server device to provide information associated with a bat modification to a server device, via a network, and user devices may communication with the server device to determine whether a bat modification has occurred. The communication may be encrypted or non-encrypted. If a user (e.g. a player, a referee, etc.) determines that a bat modification has occurred, the bat may be disqualified and/or tested to determine whether it complies with applicable “hotness” regulations. Additionally, or alternatively, if a user determines that a bat modification has not occurred, a player may use the bat, the bat may be used without being tested for compliance with “hotness” regulations, etc.

FIGS. 1A through 1C illustrates a non-limiting example embodiment of a bat that may be used in connection with the systems and/or methods described herein. As shown in FIG. 1A, bat 100 may include a handle 110, a barrel 120 and a cap 130. The handle 110 may be the portion of the bat that the user may hold when the bat is swung, such as when the bat 100 is used to contact a ball (e.g. a baseball, a softball, etc.). The handle 110, may include a knob 111, which may prevent a player's hands from slipping off of the bat 100 when it is used. The knob 111 may have a larger circumference than the rest of the handle 110. A barrel 120 may extend from the handle and provide the portion of the bat 100 which is intended to strike a ball when the bat 100 is used in play. The handle 110 and barrel 120 may be formed from a non-wooden construction, such as aluminum, titanium, composite etc., and may be formed from the same piece of material or different pieces of material. The barrel 120 may include a hollow chamber 121 (i.e. when the barrel 120 formed from a single wall construction, double wall construction, etc.), and a cap 130 may be located at the end of the barrel 120 opposite the handle 110. Cap 130 may correspond to an end cap that slides into hollow chamber 121 of the barrel 120 and/or connects to an end 122 of barrel 120 to secure cap 130 onto bat 100. Cap 130 may be secured to bat 100 using, for instance, adhesives, a compression fit, etc.

Bat 100 may further include a chip 140. Chip 140 may be installed in a way that allows a user to determine whether the cap 130 has ever been removed (i.e. removed after manufacture). Chip 140 may be communication device (i.e. active communication device, passive communication device, self-powered device, powered by other devices, low power device, etc.) that may communicate with a user device (e.g. a scanner, a smart phone, a tablet, a server device, etc.) via a network (as further described in reference to FIG. 2) to provide information associated with a bat (e.g. whether a bat has been modified, whether a bat has not been modified, whether a cap has been removed, when a bat was modified, etc.) or to provide second information that can be used to determine the information associated with the bat. Additionally, or alternatively, the information associated with a bat may include whether the cap has been removed such that the bat could have been modified. Additionally, or alternatively, the information associated with the bat may be a unique identifier (i.e. that identifies the specific bat in a database, such as database 221 or database 231, discussed later, populated by, for instance, the manufacturer) the manufacturer of the bat, the model of the bat, the date of manufacture, the length of the bat, the weight of the bat, the dimensions, etc. This information may be useful to know and/or may be used to determine whether the chip 140 is the original one installed by the manufacturer or whether the chip 140 was installed later, such as by an individual who has performed a bat modification. In one embodiment, the chip 140 communicates second information, such as a unique identifier, that can be used to query a database (i.e. by server device or a user device, as described later), and the database, in response to the query, provides information associated with the bat that is associated with the second information. In another embodiment, the second information includes both a unique identifier, used to query the database, and a signal (i.e. a resistance, a signal strength, etc.). The database is queried to identify the bat, based on the unique identifier, and to determine whether the signal falls within a first range, which reflects that the bat has been modified (i.e. the cap has been removed, etc.) or within a second range, which reflects that the bat has not modified. The first range and second range may be in the database associated with the unique identifier and the bat, and a server device or user device may execute instructions to determine whether the signal falls within the first range or the second range to determine whether a modification has occurred.

In one embodiment, chip 140 may be a near field communication device, or NFC tag, or a contactless IC product (such as made by MIFARE®, or a contactless smart card) that may not require power to communicate with a user device. In this embodiment, chip 140 may communicate with a user device (e.g. an NFC reader, which may be on a scanning device, a tablet, a smart phone, etc.). In another embodiment, chip 140 may be a low energy device, such as a BLE (Bluetooth low energy device) that communicates with a user device via a user device in proximity with chip 140 (such as the proximity used in Bluetooth low energy communications). The foregoing communication may occur via a network, and the communications may be secured (e.g. encrypted, etc.) or unsecured.

Chip 140 may be installed in the hollow chamber 121 of the barrel 120. In the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 1A and 1B, chip 140 may be connected (i.e. mechanically fastened using rivets, fasteners, etc. and/or connected using adhesives, etc.) to cap 130 and to another portion of the bat 100, such as the inner surface 123 of hollow chamber 121. In this embodiment, the chip 140 may be deformed (i.e. broken in two pieces, stretched, twisted, or otherwise plastically or elastically deformed to the point at which chip 140 may function differently, etc.) and may cease to communicate with a user device and/or communicate differently when the cap 130 is removed, partially or completely, from the barrel 120. In this embodiment, the chip 140 may even separate into a first portion 141 that remains connected to the cap 130 and a second portion 142 that may remain connected to the inner surface 123 of hollow chamber 121 when the cap 130 is removed from the bat 100. In another embodiment, first portion 141 and/or second portion 142 is deformed in a way that causes chip to communicate differently. For example, when chip 140 is a passive tag (such as an NFC Tag, such as NTAG by NXP Semiconductors Netherlands B.V., including models 213, 215, 216, etc.), one of first portion 141 or second portion 142 may correspond to a tamper loop. Tamper loop may have a first resistance, associated with a normal chip 140, and a second resistance (a different resistance from first resistance, etc.) that may indicate that the resistance loop has been deformed and/or broken (i.e. as a result of cap 130 being removed from barrel 120, etc.). In this embodiment, the chip 140 may continue to communicate with a user device but may produce a different signal from the signal produced before the cap was removed. For example, the chip 140 may produce a first signal (which may be a different resistance or the absence of a resistance or the failure to communicate) when no modification has occurred, such as when the cap 130 has not been removed from the barrel 120. Additionally, or alternatively, the chip may produce a second signal, indicating that a bat modification has occurred, as many common bat modification require the cap 130 to be removed. The second signal may be a different resistance, the absence of a signal, etc. However, the second signal may still indicate (i.e. even after a bat modification) that chip 140 is original to the bat 100 and/or authentic, such as by comparing a unique identifier associated with chip 140 to a database, which may be provided by, for instance, a bat manufacturer or other information associated with the bat. The first signal and/or second signal may be compared to one or more values or ranges of values in a database to determine whether a modification has occurred. For instance, the first signal may fall within a first range of values (or correspond to a first value) in the database, indicating that no modification has occurred. Additionally, or alternatively, the second signal may fall within a second range of values (or correspond to a second value) in the database, indicating that a modification has occurred.

In other embodiments, chip 140 may be located in other areas of the bat 100. For example, and not limitation, chip 140 may be located completely on the inner surface 123 of hollow chamber. In this embodiment, chip 140 may be broken, such as when the bat 100 is modified by shaving down the barrel 130, by rolling, etc., at which point chip 140 may cease to communicate and/or communicate differently (i.e. go from a first signal to a second signal or vice versa) to indicate a bat modification. The embodiment provided in FIGS. 1A through 1C is for example only, and the systems and methods described herein are not limited to the specific embodiments reflected in the Figures. Bats employing the systems and methods described herein may include additional components, fewer components, different components and/or differently arranged components than those described in FIGS. 1A through 1C. Also, in some implementations, one or more of the components depicted in FIGS. 1A through 1C may perform one or more functions described as being performed by another one or more components of FIGS. 1A through 1C.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example environment in which the systems and/or methods described herein may be implemented. As shown in FIG. 2, environment 200 may be a system for communicating information associated with a bat and may include a bat 100, a network 210, a server device 220 and a user device 230. The bats, user devices, server devices, networks and/or other components described in relation to FIG. 2 are provided for explanatory purposes only, and the disclosure herein is not intended to be limited to what is reflected in FIG. 2. There may additional components, fewer components and/or differently arranged components than what is shown in FIG. 2. Also, in other implementations, one or more of the components of FIG. 2 may perform the function of one or more other components of FIG. 2. For example, and not limitation, the user device may communicate directly with the chip of bat 100, which may limit or eliminate the scope of network 210 and/or the need for server device 220. FIG. 2 is a limited environment that is provided for explanatory purposes only; the systems and methods described herein may be applied on a large scale in environments that are regional, national, and/or global in nature.

Bat 100 may be as described above with reference to FIGS. 1A through 1C. Network 210 may include one or more wired and/or wireless networks via which the chips (i.e. chip 140 in bat 100) servers, user devices, etc., described herein, may communicate. For example, network 210 may include near field communication network (NFC), a Bluetooth low energy network (BLE), a wide area network (WAN) a metropolitan network (MAN), a telephone network (e.g. the Public Switched Telephone (PSTN)), an ad hoc network, an intranet, the internet, a fiber optic based network, and/or a combination of these or other types of networks. Additionally, or alternatively, network 210 may include a cellular network, a public land mobile network (PLMN), a second generation (2G) network, a third generation (3G) network, a fourth generation (4G) network (e.g., a long term evolution (LTE) network), a fifth generation (5G) network, a satellite-based network, and/or any other medium via which the server devices, user devices, scanning devices and/or other components described herein may communicate. As an example, when chip 140 in bat 100 is an NFC tag, network 210 may be a near field communication network which uses magnetic field induction to enable server device 220 or user device 230 to interrogate chip 140 (i.e. such as when user device or server device is placed at or near bat 100) to determine information associated with a bat, such as whether a bat modification has occurred.

Server device 220 may be any computation and communication device configured to gather, process, search, store, and/or provide information in a manner described herein. The database (i.e. that contains information associated with bat, which may be populated by a manufacturer of the bat, etc.) described herein may be stored on memory associated with server device 220. Server device 220 may be configured to communicate via network 210. Server 220 may provide a website and/or application that can be displayed, downloaded, and/or installed on one or more user device 230 to permit the transfer (e.g. uploading to server device 220 or downloading from server device 220) of the information associated with a bat and/or bat modification as described herein and to further perform operations and/or display information as described herein. Server device 220 may also, or alternatively, be configured to act as a web server or some other type of server that hosts one or more website and/or applications that may be accessed by the users of the systems and/or methods described herein, such as to determine whether a bat modification has occurred. Server device 220 may include a collection of components typically found on server devices, such as a bus, a processing unit, a memory, a read-only memory (“ROM”), a storage device, an input device, an output device, and/or a communication interface, etc.

Server device 220 may perform certain operations in response to processing unit executing software instructions contained in a computer-readable medium, such the memory of server 220. Further, server 220 may include the database 221, described herein, on the memory of server. Additionally, or alternatively, the software instructions and/or database described herein may be read into memory from another computer-readable medium, such as a storage device, or from another device that communicates with server 220 via network 210, such as user device 230 or another server device. The software instructions may cause the processing unit to perform processes described herein. The database may store the information associated with bat 100 (i.e. the manufacturer, the model, the dimensions, a serial number, a unique identifier, etc.) and/or information associated with a bat modification (i.e. no bat modification has occurred, a bat modification has occurred, the date on which a bat modification occurred, the unique identifier does not match, etc.), which may be provided in provide to a user device 230 in response to a query from the user device 230 and/or may be provided to server device 220 by user device 230, such as when user device 230 communicates with chip of bat 100 to obtain information. Hardwired circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with, software instructions to implement processes described herein. Thus, implementations described herein are not limited to any specific combination of hardware and/or software.

Server 220 may execute software instructions to allow the devices and components described herein to upload the information associated with the bat (bat details, bat modification information, etc.) and to store the information associated with the bat in the database described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, server 220 may execute software instructions that allow a user, such as the user associated with user device 230, to query the database associated with server 220 for the information associated with the bat 100.

User device 230 may communicate with bat 100, such as via network 210, to determine whether a bat modification has occurred, to confirm the authenticity of bat 100 (i.e. to confirm that the chip is the one placed in the bat by the manufacturer, to confirm the model, etc.) and/or to otherwise obtain information associated with bat 100, which may be used to determine whether bat 100 has been modified, to determine specifications of a bat, to further populate the database described herein, etc.

User device 230 may be any sort of device capable of interrogating bat 100 to obtain information associated with bat and/or a bat modification, Additionally, or alternatively, user device 230 may communicate with server 220 to obtain some or all of the information described herein. For example, user device 230 may be a scanner (i.e. RFID scanner, a NFC scanner, BLE capable device, etc.) a smart phone, tablet or computer that may communicate with bat 100 (i.e. with chip of bat 100) and/or a server device. User device 230 may communicate with server device 220 to transmit the information described herein to authenticate bat 100 and/or to determine whether a bat modification has occurred. User device 230 may communicate with server device 220 via network 210 to transmit information described herein and to display such information to someone associated with the user device 230 (e.g. a player, an owner of bat 100, a purchaser of bat 100, a coach, a referee, etc.). Additionally, or alternatively, user device 230 may interrogate the chip of bat 100 to obtain, for instance, a unique identifier, of bat 100, along with second information associated with the bat (i.e. a reading of chip, a signal from chip, etc.). User device 30 may include a database 231 that includes all, or some, of the information of database 221, and user device 230 may query database 231 to determine information associated with the bat, such as the manufacturer of the bat, the date of manufacture, the model of the bat, the length of the bat or the weight of the bat. In one embodiment, the second information corresponds to a signal, such as a resistance, from the chip, and the database 231 includes two ranges for the signals, the first range indicating that the cap has been removed and the second indicating that the cap has not been removed.

In one example method described herein, a bat containing a chip in a hollow chamber of a barrel of the bat may communicate with a user device. The user device may communicate with the chip of the bat to determine a quality of the bat. The chip may be an NFR tag, RFID tag, or a low power communication device or another communication device. The user device may communicate with the chip directly, such as via a local network (i.e. through a near field communication, radio frequency communication, Bluetooth connection, etc.) to retrieve information associated the bat, such as bat modification information, a unique identifier, a resistance, or other information on the bat as described herein. The information provided from the chip may provide the information associated with the bat; alternatively, the information provided from the chip may be used to query a database, such as database 221 or database 231, to determine some or all of the information associated with the bat such as the manufacturer of the bat, the date of manufacture, the model of the bat, the length of the bat or the weight of the bat. The database may be on memory associated with the user device. Alternatively, the database may be stored on another device, such as server device, another user device, etc., which may communicate with the user device to provide the information from the database. The user devices and server devices may communicate via a local network and/or any other type of network described herein. The information provided from the chip may include a signal of the chip, which may indicate whether the chip has been deformed (i.e. stretched, removed from the cap, the barrel, or another portion of the bat, broken, twisted, etc.). If the chip has been deformed, the chip may output a first signal. If the chip has not been deformed, the chip may output a second signal. The database may include two ranges for the signals, the first range indicating that the cap has been removed and the second indicating that the cap has not been removed. The first signal may fall within the first range, which may indicate that the cap has been removed. Alternatively, the second signal may fall within the second range, which may indicate that the cap has not been removed.

The foregoing description provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the implementations to the precise form disclosed herein. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure or may be acquired from practice of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent that the technologies and/or techniques described herein may be implemented in many different forms and in many different ways in addition to those specifically described with reference to FIGS. 1A through 2. The actual components and/or materials used to implement the embodiments reflected in FIGS. 1A through 2 are merely example materials. It should be understood that the components and/or materials may be designed in any form or fashion to meet the requirements of a particular embodiment.

It should be emphasized that the terms comprises/comprising when used in this specification are taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, intergers, steps, components or other groups thereof. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for determining information associated a bat, the system comprising: a bat having a handle, a barrel extending from the handle, and a cap connected to the barrel opposite the handle, the cap being connected to a first portion of a chip, the chip having a second portion connected to a portion of the bat other than the cap; and a user device that communicates with the chip on a network to receive the information associated with the bat or to receive second information used to obtain the information associated with the bat.
 2. The system of claim 1, where the portion of the bat other than the cap is the inner wall of the barrel, and the first portion of the chip is connected to a portion of the cap located in a hollow chamber of the barrel.
 3. The system of claim 1, where the network is a near field communication network.
 4. The system of claim 3, where the chip is an NFC tag.
 5. The system of claim 1, where the chip is a contactless smart card.
 6. The system of claim 1, further including a server device that communicates with the user device on the network or a second network.
 7. The system of claim 6, where the second network is the internet.
 8. The system of claim 6, where the server device includes a database, and the second information corresponds to a unique identifier used to query the database to obtain the information associated with the bat.
 9. The system of claim 1, where the information associated with the bat either identifies that the cap has been removed or that the cap has not been removed.
 10. The system of claim 2, where the chip is deformed when the cap is partially or completely removed from the bat, and the second information is either a first signal when the chip has not been deformed or a second signal when the chip has been deformed.
 11. The system of claim 1, where the user device is a smart phone.
 12. The system of claim 1, where the information associated with the bat includes the manufacturer of the bat, the date of manufacture, the model of the bat, the length of the bat, or the weight of the bat.
 13. A bat configured to provide information associated with the bat to a user, the bat comprising: a handle, a barrel extending from the handle, a cap connected to the barrel opposite the handle, and a chip having a first portion connected to the cap and a second portion connected to a portion of the bat other than the cap, the chip configured to communicate via a network to provide the information associated with the bat or to provide second information used to obtain the information associated with the bat.
 14. The bat of claim 13, where the chip is an NFC Tag.
 15. The bat of claim 13, where the portion of the bat other than the cap is the inner surface of the barrel.
 16. The bat of claim 13, where the information associated with the bat includes whether the cap has been removed.
 17. The bat of claim 13, where the second information is configured to query a database to obtain the information associated with the bat.
 18. The bat of claim 17, where the second information includes a signal and the information associated with the bat includes whether the cap has been removed.
 19. The bat of claim 13, where the network is a near field communication network.
 20. A bat configured to identify whether a cap of the bat has been removed, the bat comprising: a handle, a barrel extending from the handle and including a hollow chamber, the cap partially inserted into the hollow chamber of the barrel opposite the handle, and a chip having a first portion connected to the cap and a second portion connected to an inner surface of the barrel, the chip being deformed when the cap has been removed from the bat, the chip configured to provide a signal on the network that identifies whether the cap has been removed.
 21. The bat of claim 20, where the signal is a first signal when the cap has not been removed or a second signal when the cap has been removed.
 22. The bat of claim 21, where the second signal corresponds to the absence of a signal. 